Auburn's 21st International Quality of Life Award event to recognize publisher Maria Rodale, U.S. Congressman Spencer Bachus

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Auburn University's College of Human Sciences will honor Maria Rodale, CEO and chairman of Rodale Inc., one of the largest independent publishing companies in the world, and retiring U.S. Congressman and Auburn alumnus Spencer Bachus at the 21st International Quality of Life Awards on Monday, Dec. 8, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Rodale, this year's IQLA Laureate, earned the top spot in the family business by working her way up the ranks. She started in circulation in 1987, joined the board in 1991 and was elected chairman in 2007.

Rodale Inc. currently publishes some of the best-known health and wellness magazines, including Prevention, Men's Health, Women's Health, Runner's World and Organic Gardening. It also has produced more than 75 New York Times bestsellers, including Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."

Rodale is an author herself of a number of books and a blog, Maria's Farm Country Kitchen. Her 2010 work, "Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe," provides a look at why chemical-free farming holds the key to better health for families and the planet.

In 2013, she created and launched Rodale's, an online shopping destination that offers healthy solutions for a happy life.

Bachus is receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes individuals who have brought distinguished recognition to Auburn University and/or the state of Alabama.

After graduating from Auburn in 1969, he served in the Alabama National Guard while attending law school at the University of Alabama, earning his juris doctorate in 1972.

Bachus served in the Alabama State Legislator and on the Alabama State School Board before his election to the U.S. Congress in 1992.

As a Congressman, he has been credited with helping to reduce hunger and poverty in many developing countries through his leadership on debt relief for impoverished nations. As the ranking member and chair of the Financial Services Committee, he was an integral player in efforts to stabilize the financial markets during the 2008 recession.

For Alabama, Bachus' notable accomplishments include major transportation projects, establishing the National Computer Forensics Institute in Hoover, creating the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge and construction of the Alabama National Cemetery.

Bachus will leave office in January after 22 years in Congress.

The College of Human Sciences established the International Quality of Life Awards in 1994 to recognize people and partnerships that made significant and lasting contributions to individual, family and community well-being locally and around the world.

For more information about IQLA, visit http://www.humsci.auburn.edu/iqla/index.php.

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